Bawuah Appointed As The First Female CEO Of UBA

The Board of Directors of United Bank for Africa Plc has appointed Mrs. Abiola Bawuah as the Chief Executive Officer of UBA Africa, making her the first female CEO of UBA.

Bawuah will also become an Executive Director on the Group Board, where he will be in charge of operations outside of Nigeria on the continent.

In addition to France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), UBA is one of the best financial institutions in 19 other African nations.

The appointment of Bawuah, a Ghanaian, as the bank’s first female CEO further demonstrates the bank’s commitment to diversity. There are currently eight female directors on the Group Board.

She managed operations in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, and Sierra Leone while serving as CEO of UBA Ghana and Regional CEO of West Africa.

Mr. Tony O. Elumelu, Chairman of the Group Board, stated that Abiola has significantly contributed to the expansion of UBA Africa for close to a decade.

She brings extensive knowledge of stakeholder engagement and commercial banking. He added,

“She brings a wealth of experience in commercial banking, and stakeholder engagement. It also gives me great pleasure that with her appointment, the UBA Group Board has now become a majority female board,”

Chris Ofikulu assumes the role of Regional CEO for UBA West Africa, one of several new executive positions. Over the past two decades, Ofikulu has worked in corporate, commercial, and retail banking.

The new Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of UBA Ghana is Uzoechina Molokwu, subject to local regulatory approvals. He has over 23 years of banking experience and served as the Executive Director, Business Development, for UBA Côte d’Ivoire.

In the meantime, subject to approval, Ayokunle Olajubu will be the Managing Director and CEO of UBA Liberia. He has 30 years of experience in banking in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, and the Gambia, where he currently oversees compliance across subsidiaries in Africa.

Theresa Henshaw has also been appointed CEO of UBA UK. She joined the Group as ED, Business Development at UBA UK after serving as DMD, Business Development, for UBA America.

Subject to local regulatory approval, Usman Isiaka, who is currently CEO of UBA Sierra Leone, will take over as Deputy CEO of UBA America.

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The current Group Treasurer is Adeyemi Adeleke, the former CEO of UBA UK. Taking advantage of the Group’s presence both within and outside of Africa, Adeleke will work to uncover the enormous value contained in its multi-jurisdictional balance sheet.

However, High Chief Samuel Oni, a non-executive director who was independent, has resigned from the Board. In January 2015, he joined the UBA Group, where he remained for eight years.

With 25,000 employees across the globe and serving over 37 million customers worldwide, UBA is one of the continent’s largest employers in the financial sector.